On 6/27/08 at 2:40 PM, drmajorbob at att.net (DrMajorBob) wrote:
>You not only brushed aside why articles and tutorials entitled
>"Inequalities" don't mention "Inequality", you actually LEFT OUT
>those comments. Why, because you had no answer?
No, I simply didn't look at them. When I saw no specific page
for that symbol I didn't look further. And when I thought about
how I would document something I would not expect a user to
enter ever, the documentation seemed quite reasonable to me.
>Yes, FullForm is a fine tool, and every newbie should learn to use
>it often. Once that habit is established, many things can be
>discovered.
>But no, Inequality is not properly documented.
I've no idea what it means for some function in Mathematica to
be "properly documented". In my opinion, there is adequate
documentation for Inequality. You or others may disagree which
is your privilege.
>This is, after all, the grand new era of bookless documentation.
>Electronic means of finding information, especially those that can
>be automated... like including a response to F1 for EVERY built-in
>symbol... should WORK.
I expect F1 or in my case, cmd-shift-f to bring up a response
for any built-in symbol I would enter which as far as I know, it
does. I see no reason for F1 or cmd-shift-f to bring up a
response for something I would not ever expect to enter as is
the case for Inequality.
The only reason I can think of a user even needs to be aware of
Inequality is when trying to create a pattern that matches it.
For this purpose, all that is really needed is to know of its
existence, something FullForm satisfies. That is, I can easily
create a pattern matching an expression containing Inequality
once I know it exists using FullForm without having any
information as to how to use Inequality.
Further, since Inequality is sequence of expressions containing
things like Greater, Less etc and these symbols do bring up
responses using cmd-shift-f, it becomes readily apparent what
will happen if I change sub-parts using pattern matching.
Again, I make no claim everything in Mathematica is adequately
documented. I simply think in this specific case the
documentation as written is adequate. And as stated above, you
are certainly free to disagree.